Numbering-machine.



I. HASSELSTROM. NUMBERING MAUHINE, APPLICATION FILED APR. 15, 1907.

Patented Oct. 20, 1908.-

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I. HASSELSTROM. NUMBEBING MACHINE. APPLICATION rxLnnArn. 15, .19q7.

901,443. Patented 0011.20; 1908.

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IVAR HASSELSTROM, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

NUMBERING-MACHINE Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 20, 1908.

Application filed April 15, 1907. Serial No. 368,139.

To all whom it may concern:

shaft or axis being broken off. Fig. 3 is a Be it known that I, IVAR HASSELSTROM, a i section taken substantially on line 33 of citizen of the United States, residing at Chi- I Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is taken on line 44 of Fig. 2. cago, 1n the county of Cook and State of Illi- Fig. 5 is taken on line 5-5 of Fig. 2, the

nois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in NumberingMaehines, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to numbering n1a chines of the type wherein are employed a plurality of figure disks or wheels revolubly mounted on a common axis and having decimally numbered studs on their peripheries. Such wheels move each other in serial order, the first of the series representing units; the second, tens; the third, hundreds, and so on. The first wheel moves continuously by impulses or impacts, each impulse causing onetenth of a revolution of the wheel. Each time the first or units wheel completes one revolution it gives the second or tens wheel a single impulse. Ten of the latter impulses completes one revolution of the tens wheel and the latter, in turn, gives the hundreds wheel a single impulse, and so on through the series. Thus each wheel after it has exhausted its own figures, brings the next wheel into cooperative action for the repetition movements.

This invention is adapted not only for numbering by the process of addition, but is adapted for numbering backward, or by subtraction; so that in numbering railway tickets, for instance, the last ticket numbered or first to be used, will be conveniently found at the top of the pile or stack of numbered tickets. The well known numbering machines of this type now in use are comparatively expensive to manufacture, and are more or less delicate structurally so that break'downs occur frequently which entails considerable loss of time and expense for repairs.

The general object of my invention is to improve the structure and method of construction of numbering machines, and with said objects in view my invention consists in the novel construction, arrangement and combination of parts, hereinafter described in detail, illustrated in the drawings and incorporated in the claims.

In the drawingsFigure 1 is a perspective view of a numbering machine embodying my invention, its sections being separated to better illustrate their relative relations. Fig. 2 is an exterior side view of the machine, exelusive of the mountings or driving parts, the

l l I number wheel 2, which is adjacent to the disk, being shown in dotted lines. Fig. 6 is a section on line 66 of Fig. 2. Fig. 7 is a section taken on line 7-7 of Fig. 3. Fig. 8 is a section taken on line 8-8 of Fig. 3. Fig. 9 is an enlarged section of one of the number wheels. Fig. 10 is an enlarged section of one of the number wheels. Fig. 11 is a perspective view of the hollow locking plunger shown in Figs. 9 and 10, this plunger, plug or stop being used only when numbering backward. Fig. 12 is a perspective view of substantially the part shown in Fig. 9. Figs. 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18 are enlargements of details shown in the other views.

Referring in detail to the several views,

the machine is shown equipped with five figure wheels labeled 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, respec tively, 2 being the units wheel. Eaohwheel has the usual ten studs with the digits engraved thereon, and its numbering capacity, therefore, is from 1 to 99999. The five wheels are revolubly mounted on the shaft 7 and are, as is well known, provided with clicks or stops which prevent their accidental rotation. These stops, however, are ar ranged and mounted in a manner which is different from the usual arrangement, and the shaft 7, instead of each one of the wheels, is provided with ten equi-distantly spacedapart Wedge-shaped grooves 8 and one blind groove 9 which runs midway between two of the grooves 8. Each of the figure wheels is provided with a click or wedge-pointed pin 10 which engages one of the grooves 8 or 9 to hold the wheel against accidental rotation. The click or sto -pin 10 is mounted for limited longitudina movement in a bushing or tubular case 11 held in a bore 12. This arrangementis alike in all the wheels. The bores 12 extend radially from the outer to the inner wheel circles, as shown in Figs. 3, 5 and 6.

In the enlarged view (Fig. 16) the bushing 11 is shown provided at its outer end with an annular shoulder 13, between which and the butt or rear end of the stop-pin 10 a spiral spring 14 is com ressed for the urpose of forcing outward t e point 15 of said pin, and cause it to enter the grooves 8 and 9 as they are successively brought into alinement with the pins 10. Owing to the great amount of wear to which the points of the stop-pins and the walls of the grooves are subjected these parts must be highly tempered. W hen the wheels must, in accordance with the usual method, be thus tempered the process of tempering tends towarp them. By placing the grooves in the shaft and mounting the stop-- pins in the wheels this difiiculty is obviated, as the pins and bushings may be tempered independently of the wheels. Another advantage which I gain is that the grooves or notches for all of the Wheels are tempered simultaneously and in one operation when the shaft is tempered, and when the grooves have been worn out the wheels are not thereby rendered useless for further service and a new shaft may be provided at a comparatively small cost.- A still further advantage derived from the arrangement of the pins in the wheels is that 1 am enabled to, simply and inexpensively, provide against acci" dental rotation of the pins which would cause their points to enter the grooves crosswise, get stuck and cause breakages.

As shown in Figs. 16 and 18 I provide means for preventing rotation of a round pin in a round hole by milling a recess 16 in each of the stop-pins 10 and drilling holes at 17 through the bushing. In the latter hole a pin 18 is secured, which pin crosses the recess 16. The pin 18 holds the bushing in the bore 12, it restrains the stop-pin from dropping out of the bushing and also prevents its accidental rotation therein.

To the units wheel 2 is secured the usual ratchet wheel 19 operated in any suitable manner through a pawl 20. The five figure wheels are held against lateral movement by means of a collar 21 placed against the ratchet-wheel 19 and an annular disk 22 placed against the fifth wheel 6. For the sake of convenience the collar and disk are shown secured to the shaft by means of setscrews 23 and 24. The collar 21 is slightly spaced apart from the ratchet-wheel 19 by a hub 25 formed on the collar.v A projectionplate having an incline 26" is secured to the inner face of the collar 21. A ball 27 is mounted in a circular opening 28 which passes through the ratchet-wheel. Said ball is of a size to project it into the space around the hub 25 so that when it is revolved with the ratchet-wheel it will be forced inward once for each revolution by the plate 26 and thus operate the connections which temporarily yoke the figure wheels together in successive order. These connections are made as follows: Each figure wheel, excepting the first, has a circle of ten perforations equally spaced apart. One of the perforations in each of said circles, save the one in the last wheel, is occupied by a spring-pressed plunger which is normally retracted within the plane of the wheel. This lunger is momen tarily projected about haf its length, once during each revolution of the wheel in which it is mounted, into the next higher wheel; that is, into one of the perforations of said next wheel, or against the plunger and then into the plungers perforation or seat. An other one of each series of ten )erforatio'ns is occupied by another form of p unger or hollow stop-plug which normally provides a socket or opening adapted to receive the referred to plungers from adjacent wheels in the same manner and for the same purpose as the normally unoccupied perforations. As these stop-plugs come into action ositively only when certain of the wheels are to be rendered inactive in backward numbering, their description will be deferred until other parts of the mechanism have been described. In the backward numbering to be referred to hereinafter the mechanism operates exactly in the same manner as in forward or addition numbering, the only difference being that the figures and cipher are arranged in reverse order on the studs of the wheels and one wheel after another is rendered inactive locked out of the printing line", beginning With the ten thousand wheel.

The one perforation in the circle of ten, which is occupied by a plunger is counterbored at 30 in such a manner as to form a hub and stop 31.. This hub projects into the counterbore to a point half way between the opposite sides of the wheel. The ten perforations in each circle will be designated hereinafter by the numeral 29. The modifications or counterbores of parts of the perforations will be referred to separately. The hub 31 (Figs. 14 and 15) assists the thin wall left by the counterbore in su sporting, or providing a bearing for, the p unger 32 provided with a flat head 33. The length of the plunger, including its head, is equal to the thickness of the wheel. A coiled spring 24 is arranged around the hub. This spring bears against the underside of the plunger-head which is held flush with the face of the wheel by a countersunk screw 35 the head of which overlaps the edge of the plunger-head, as clearly shown in Fig. 14. A threaded opening 36 adjacent to the countersink 30 is pro vided for the screw 35.

The plungers 32 are arranged in the openings 29 which are, radially, between the cipher and 1, as will appear from a glance at Fig. 1. All of the openings or perforations 29 in the second or tens wheel are counterbored the same as the opening which holds the plunger but only to a depth of one half the thickness of the wheel and without forming hubs 31, and for the following reasons: The plunger 32 in the first wheel is projected gradually into the second wheel, its inward movement into the second wheel being equal, in point of time, to the duration of the movement of the ball 27 up the incline 26 of the projection-plate 26. While the plunger of the first wheel is moving into the second wheel it is also revolved with the wheel in which it is mounted and as it must not act on the second wheel until the latter has obtained a full hold upon it, or, in other words, until it has completed its entering movement some play room must be provided in the perforations 29. The countersinks are so much larger in diameter than the diameter of the plungers that the plungers can move in the countersinks while the ball 27 passes up the incline 26 and not strike the forward wall of the countersink until the plunger is fully inserted therein. The third fourth and fifth wheels do not require countersunk openings 29, because the openings of all the wheels are always in register with,

each other and when the plunger of the first wheel meets the head of the plunger of the second wheel, said first wheel plunger glides over the surface of the head of the second wheel plunger while forcing the latter inward into the third wheel. Thus the second and third wl'ieels are permitted to remain stationary while the plunger of the first wheel V fourth wl'ieel, like the fifth, has exhausted its is moving the plunger of the second wheel into a perforation, or against a plunger, in the th rd wheel, and so on through the series of wheels regardless of the number qf wheels employed. In yoking the wheels together by means of plungers, or cross-bars, as it were, the strain of moving the wheels against the resistance of the stop-pins or clicks is not imposed upon any delicate parts, such as springs, and the like, and the yoke, cross-bar or plunger can be made as large in diameter as desired, or as may be required to resist the maximum of possible shearing strains. When all of the wheels are yoked together their simultaneous movement obviously imposes considerable strain upon the connection between the first and second wheels and this has heretofore been a constant source of annoyance, delay and expense.

In numbering backward, or by subtraction, the figures on the wheels are arranged to run consecutively in the opposite direction and if the start is made at the highest number, which in this instance is 99999, all of the nines are arranged on the printing line, the units wheel beginning to act by first moving to 8 then to 7 and so on until all of the wheels have been connected in the usual way. When the figures on the ten thousand wheel have been exhausted, or, in other words, when the numbers to be printed have been reduced from five figures to four figures, the fifth wheels 0 must be moved off of the printing line, or the machine would print 09999 instead of the required 9999 and the rest of the numbers in the four-figure series. I render the fifth, or last, wheel inactive in the following manner. When its 1 has been printed and the plunger 32 is about to move the wheel to the cipher the plunger instead of encountering a free perforation 29 enters the space '37 (Fig. 9) in a cupshaped plunger 38 seated in an opening 29. Unlike the solid plunger 32, this hollow plunger 38, or plug, normally tends to project, a coiled spring 40 hearing against the bottom of the cup, and a flat spring 41 bent twice at right angles and secured to the wheel by a screw 42, compressing the spring 40. After the plunger 32 has entered the opening 37 in the cup the fifth wheel is moved about one half of its one-tenth revolution Which brings the cup 38 in register with an opening 43 in the disk 22, and immediately the spring 40 presses the cup into said opening 43 so that its upper edge 44 is brought flush with the bottom of a slot 15. The plunger 32 being released of engagement with the hollow plug continues to move idly through the slot 45 until the ball 27 has passed the projection plate 26 and thus permitted the plunger 32 to be retracted and disengaged from the fifth wheel which is now locked out of service with its O and 1 on each side of the printing lme of the remaining wheels. When the figures by printing the last one of themthe 1the fourth wheel s cup 38 drops into the space in the fifth wheel vacated by the latter whecls cup 38. Likewise the stopplug of the third wheel in turn drops into the space vacated by the cup in the fourth wheel, and so on through the series up to and including the second wheel. The first wheel, of course, need not be locked. After the stop-plugs have interlocked the four wheels, the latter must be disengaged before they can be readjusted for renewed operations.

This I accomplish by means of a push-button 46 provided with a stem 47, seated in an opening 18 leading from the opening 43 in the disk 22. On the inner end of the pushbuttons stem isa disk 49 which cooperates with the button 46 in holding the stem in lace. After the second, third, fourth and fth wheels have been thus locked together,

it is desirable that some provision be made for independent movement of the first wheel so that if the driving operation is accidentally prolonged after the printing of the whole series of numbers no injury to the mechanism will be caused. I provide for such movement as follows: After the hollow plug of the second wheel has become lodged in the third Wheel the second wheel has completed its work and when the wheel bearing the units has revolved opposite the plate 26 after dropping the second wheel halfway there would be no perforation 29 in the usual position for the plunger to enter, so I provide a slot 50 on the near side of the opening for the hollow plug through which the )lunger may travel the half distance. A s 0t 45 (which is substantially the same as the slot 45 referred to above in position and function) completes the path for the projected plunger, or While it is acted upon or is passing the plate 26. Owing to the provision of the recess the spring 41 of Fig. 9 takes the form of a flat spring 51 in Fig. 10. Each plug 38 is provided With an opening 52 Where the spring 41 is employed through Which the tip of said spring is admitted so that it may bear on the coiled spring Within the hollow of the plug.

I claim as my invention 1. In a numbering machine, a series of number Wheels, means for moving same in serial order, and means for rendering each Wheel inactive in turn, beginning With the Wheel of the highest denomination of the series, after its numbers have been exhausted.

2. In a numbering machine, a series of last to be moved after it has made one com plete revolution and then rendering the Wheel next thereto inactive in the same manner and so on, and means for disconnecting the first Wheel of the series from cooperative engagement With the other Wheels When the latter have all been rendered inactive.

3. In a numbering machine, the combination With a series of number Wheels mounted to revolve in serial order, of means for actuating the first Wheel of the series, means for actuating the remaining Wheels by said first Wheel, said last mentioned means consisting of perforations and plungers adapted to en gage same, one of said perforations 29 having a counterbore with a hub therein limiting the outward movement of the plunger and providing also a substantial bearing therefor.

4. In a numbering machine, a series of number Wheels mounted for movement in serial order, means for revolving the first of said Wheels consisting of the suitably actuated pawl and ratchet mechanism, each of the remaining Wheels provided With perforations 29 each Wheel, save the last, having a perforation With a counterbore 30 and a hub 31, a plunger mounted in said perforation and hub, said plunger provided With a head 33 a spring 34 arranged to bear against said head and thereby keep the plunger normally retracted, and the ball 27 and incline 26 mounted to actuate said plungers in regular order. I

5. In a numbering machine, the combination With a series of number Wheels constructed and arranged to move in serial order, of means for moving same, means automatically locking each Wheel, in its turn, out of cooperative action With the remaining Wheels after its numbers have been exhausted; said means consisting of the hollow springpressed plungers 38 mounted in openings 29; the disk 22 having an opening 46 adapted to receive said plunger 38 of the last Wheel, and the remaining plungers 38 being movable successively into the spaces previously vacated, as set forth.

6. The combination With a series of numher Wheels and the means for supporting and advancing same, of means for automatically stopping each Wheel in order beginning With the last, and means automatically releasing the first Wheel of the series from operative connection With the remaining Wheels, Where- 7 5 by said first Wheel is made free to move independently of the remaining Wheels after their Work has been com leted.

In testimony whereof have hereunto set my hand in the presence of tWo subscribing Witnesses.

IVAR HASSELSTROM.

Witnesses:

M. O. ALLEN, J. W. BECKSTROM. 

